1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for providing customer security features. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for maintaining security features by a security server.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic tickets are gaining increased acceptance as more people use the Internet and become more familiar and comfortable with buying items, including tickets, from online vendors and merchants. Electronic tickets can then be printed by the customer on the customer's printer. Often, electronic tickets include a ticket identifier that can be scanned, such as a barcode, to ensure that a given ticket is only used once. After the barcode on the ticket is read, a subsequent reading of the same barcode triggers an error and alerts the merchant that a duplicate ticket has been tendered and the merchant can refuse the second ticket holder admission.
Electronic tickets are typically purchased by a customer using a personal computer with an Internet browser to access a ticket merchant's web site. The customer selects a ticket from the merchant's web site and typically pays for the ticket online by providing credit card information so that the merchant can charge the ticket purchase to the customer's credit card. The merchant processes the customer's request and, if the credit card charge is accepted, provides the customer with ticket information that can be printed on the customer's printer.
Electronic tickets can also be used to gather information about the customers that can be used by the merchant for more effective marketing. While electronic tickets provide merchants with increased information and a level of protection, a challenge exists in gaining consumer confidence in using the system.
Currently, a ticket that is printed out by a customer can be used by anyone that gains possession of the printed ticket. The actual customer is typically not referenced on the face of the ticket by name or any other means. A challenge exists in more tightly binding the actual customer with a given ticket.
Tickets are often sold (i.e., “scalped”) or given away by the original ticket customer to other customers. Popular sporting events and music concerts often have many “scalpers” selling tickets outside the arena, often for prices well above the original ticket price. An unscrupulous scalper could photocopy a given electronic ticket and sell the same ticket to multiple buyers. Because the electronic ticket is typically printed on the customer's printer, on their face they are not as secure from being photocopied as traditional tickets that are printed using a special printing process and special ticket paper. The lack of special printing causes a lack of confidence in buying a ticket from a third party.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method to bind a customer to a ticket using the customer's own security features. Furthermore, what is needed is a way of authenticating an electronic ticket using the customer's security features to ensure that the rightful customer is the ticket holder. Moreover, what is needed is a way to transfer an electronic ticket from one individual to another by unbinding the first individual's security features from the ticket and rebinding the ticket to the second individuals security features.